Henderson the Rain King : The Comic Form and the Style of Saul Bellow

Abstract

Quoting Leslie Fiedler, the author asserts that the modern novel has turned "from mythology to psychology from a body of communal story to the mind of the individual," and as a result, he concludes, the comic novel is a rarity. In this tradition, the six novels of Saul Bellow focus on the psychological development of one central character. However, the author asserts, one of Bellow's novels, Henderson the Rain King, stands above the rest because of the introduction of comic elements to the author's style of writing.